MG plant reopens

The former MG Rover plant in Longbridge, Birmingham reopened today. Three new 2-seater MG TF sports cars were rolled out of the production line at a ceremony marking the official reopening by new Chinese owner Nanjing Automobile Corporation (NAC).

The ceremony was attended by Senior Chinese government and company officials. Not sure whether any senior British Govt official attended.

At present, the Chinese firm employs just 150 people at the plant. However, the new owners have promised to create 1200 new jobs.

Industry analysts remain skeptical, however. Read the BBC report here.

For your information, the Rover brand name was bought over by Ford.

Auto enthusiast

Some people confuse an auto enthusiast with an auto expert. Of course there are auto enthusiasts who are auto experts too. I am not one of those. Don't expect me to know everything there is to know about car or even their specifications. Actually I don't even drive a fancy car too. After I started this blog, I have received numerous e-mails from people all around the world. I sincerely try to help out whenever I can.

Recently I was contacted by one of my readers. Here's what she wrote:

I have a 1974 Buick apollo, original owner, runs great miles 100,000 turned over plus 3,000. upholstery redone as original. added under dash a/c. all still original.. white with red stripe. I have listed for sale at 3,000.
i can not find any real info on its value anywhere on internet. I cannot find one for sale to compare. my friends keep telling me it is worth a lot more. Could you possibly answer an opinion on pricing?
Of course this is not anything you would be or could be responsible for
as your opinion...just a lady out in the middle of the desert , asking a
possible help question. thank you

Well I don't know much about the Buick models and did some research. here's my reply:

First of all, I would like to clarify that I am not an expert. Valuation of classic cars are quite tricky. I guess it depends on the rarity and also condition of the car.
Doing some research, I found out that you are in luck as the Buick Apollo is quite rare. Here is a link to a price guide of the Buick Apollo. http://www.buickapollo.net/apollopriceguides.html
Not sure about your car, but I saw an ad for a 1974 Buick Apollo 2-door coupe on sale for $7,500.
Hope this info helps.

Here's another mail I received:

Hi Adam,
Hi Adam,
I just came across your blog while looking our for Malaysian passenger car sales data for the month of February and march of 2007. It would be real helpful if you could provide me with the suitable links where I could get this kind of information.
regards

And here's my reply:

Nice to hear from you. I think the best source would be the Malaysian Automotive Association. However, you may have to become a member in order to obtain the latest info. Unless you have a friend who's already a member.
Hope this info. helps.

Anyway, I love cars and try to keep abreast with the latest developments in the auto industry. Will definitely share what I hear and experience with you guys.

Feel free to e-mail me pictures of your ride along with the specs. I will post them up here.

Dodge Nitro T-shirt contest sponsors disappear

I finally realized I was scammed after repeated e-mails to the contact person and the company who sponsored my Dodge Nitro T-shirt contest, remain unanswered.

The winners of the contest will not go empty handed. I have already sent them a t-shirt each from my own 'Auto Enthusiast' online shop. I really apologise for not being able to deliver the promised prizes. This is a big lesson for me.



Read the whole series of events here, right from the start when a lady named Corrie Zielinski contacted me. I later found out that she was the Online Brand Manager of an online advertising company called New Media Strategies.

UPDATE: 5 June 2007
I am really happy to announce that everything turned out great in the end. The whole fiasco was due to e-mail problems.

Renault Clios recalled

Renault has recalled all the Clio II here in the UK. This follows complaints of bonnets suddenly flying open while driving. Read the BBC report here.

There was report about a Clio bonnet popping up and smashing the windscreen yesterday.

Winners of the Nitro T-shirt contest

You might recall that I had organised a Nitro T-shirt contest sometime back. I can now finally announce the winners. They are 1. DON (BinaryGuy) and 2. DORIS,

Come back for updates.

Perodua Viva just a poor copy of Mira

Learned about the launch of the new Perodua Viva on the 10th of this month, from Xcarz who left a comment on my blog.

This new model is a replacement for the Kelisa and is based on the Daihatsu Mira (also known as the Cuore, Domino or Charade outside Japan). In fact it is almost identical to the Mira externally. Internally however, it is a different matter all together. Malaysians have been handed down the old tired design. Take a look at Paul Tan's blog post here to see what I mean.

Prices range from RM 28,400 (for the Solid color 660cc EX Manual) to RM 44,200 (for the 1000cc Metallic paint Automatic Premium) - these are on the road prices.

FYI, Perodua is short for Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd.

UPDATE: Learned from Azwan that the 660cc and 850cc versions of Viva don't have power steering.

Chrysler sold for $7.4B

I am sure all of you must have heard the news by now. DaimlerChrysler has sold 80.1% stake of the struggling Chrysler unit to private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management for $7.41 billion. Read the press release here.

According to Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of DaimlerChrysler AG and Head of the Mercedes Car Group:

We’re confident that we’ve found the solution that will create the greatest overall value – both for Daimler and Chrysler . With this transaction, we have created the right conditions for a new start for Chrysler and Daimler.

Shares of DaimlerChrysler jumped on the news, indicating that investors were confident that Cerberus could turn around the ailing unit. Read the Forbes report here.

Cerberus beat two other bidders, a partnership between Blackstone Group and Centerbridge Capital Partners, and Magna International (a Canadian auto parts company).

More classic cars at the Coventry Transport Museum

Nice curvy bodies


Did you know that the car chase scenes inside the sewers in the 1969 classic movie, 'The Italian Job' were NOT shot in Italy? They were filmed here in Coventry.


BP and Shell were one, once.


Triumph once produced cars


Looks like the Jag design hasn't changed much from the earlier models


The Thrust2. It held the World record for fastest Land Speed Record held the world between 1983 and 1997.

Other amazing and priceless classic cars:





Related posts:
- Classic cars at the Coventry Transport Museum
- Visit to Coventry Transport Museum

Classic cars at the Coventry Transport Museum

I was surprised at the number of car brands that once came out of Coventry. This include Alvis, Calcott, Daimler, Jaguar, Lea Francis, Humber, Hillman, Sunbeam, Standard, Swift and Triumph.

Out of all, only Jaguar remains and is still producing cars here.


Barbie's Jaguar.


A day out a long time ago.


The Lotus concept car. Designed by a Coventry University student.


Jaguar concept.


Classic motorbikes.


The Penny Farthing bike. It must have taken an effort to climb this bike even before riding it.


Do you recognise this futuristic looking car with a stainless steel body. Unfortunately it didn't sell and the company went bust.

Visit to Coventry Transport Museum

Coventry was once the home of many famous car manufacturers and I have always wanted to visit the Coventry Transport Museum. Unfortunately, my wife is not that keen on classic cars. I finally got the opportunity to visit the museum when my father-in-law (who's happens to be another car enthusiast) came to visit us.


The museum is situated in Millennium Place, Hales street CV1 1PN, just opposite the Pool Meadow Bus Station.




It was really interesting. Unlike other museums, entry is totally free and you are allowed to take photographs. Isn't that great.

Win a T-shirt and get featured too

If you think you car is outstanding, write about it on your blog and you stand a chance of winning a cool looking t-shirt from importtuner.com. At the same time, winners would have their entry featured in an article about your ride. The contest is called the "Import Tuner Ride of the Month" and runs till 5 p.m. PST 22nd of May this year. Voting starts from that date till the 31st of May. The contest winners will be announced in late June.

Entering the contest is quite easy and involves four steps. First of all, you have to fill in your contact information. Unlike some other contests on the net, here you can specify the shirt size. You won't be stuck with a large one size fits all shirt.

In the next step, you enter the vehicle, and fill in details about your vehicle. You then upload pictures of your car. I like the fact that the images will be resized and/or cropped automatically to a 112x80 Thumbnail and a 400x300 large sized image.

Finally you hit the "Submit my ride" button and you are done.

The web page looks cool but I noticed that there is are a few things they could do to improve it even more. First of all, the picture "View contest entries" on the top right hand side of the banner may be a bit misleading as there is no link present.

Also noticed that the contest is targeted to Americans ONLY as the contact information does not have a "Country" option. Putting in a line saying "For visitors from the US only" would be advisable.

For your information, Import Tuner is a is a PRIMEDIA publication. This magazine focuses on modified / modifying cars imported to the US.

Sponsored post

Free parking for green cars

The city council of London has abolished the parking charges of residents driving hybrid and fuel cell cars, in the borough of Westminister.

These are the latest in a series of eco-friendly moves by the local authority. previously electric cars did not have to pay any road tax or congestion charges. It is also the only place in the UK with free charging points on the streets.

The annual residents' parking permits was previously £78 for hybrid cars and £110 (it still is) for other cars. If other cities followed suit, I would be really tempted to buy a hybrid vehicle myself.